Homophobia persists in India despite court reforms

Homophobia remains rampant across India despite the 2009 court ruling
overturning a colonial law declaring homosexuality to be a crime punishable
by 10 years in jail.

Indian Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Rahul Bedi, New Delhi

1:39PM BST 05 Jul 2011

A recent countrywide survey by the CNN-IBN television news channel revealed that as many as 73 per cent of Indians believe homosexuality should be illegal.

The poll, which was conducted in urban neighbourhoods, showed that 83 per cent of respondents felt that homosexuality was not part of Indian culture whilst 90 per cent said they would not rent their houses to a gay or lesbian couple.

The majority of Indian homosexuals – many of whom still live with the parents – refer to their partners as “friends” for fear of being disowned by their families.

Many are forcibly married off, trapped in a cycle of pretence and deception and facing social ridicule if they attempted to come out.

And those who can live together do not advertise their sexuality, for fear of being evicted by landlords or preyed upon by the corrupt police who extort money from them on threat of exposure.

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Over the past decade there have been several press reports of lesbian and gay couples exchanging marriage vows, but these stories invariably excite crude humour.

More recently hundreds of homosexuals from both sexes have attended pride parades in Delhi and Bangalore to lobby their cause.

In one march men wore sparkling saris, women sported rainbow boas and hundreds of people chanted for gay rights on a short walk through Delhi’s centre. But fear of ostracism was evident amongst many marchers who preferred to wear masks to conceal their identity.

Even mainstream political and religious groups venomously oppose homosexuality.

Former MP B P Singhal from India’s main Opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party believes homosexuality to be an “evil exported from the West” - a view echoed by many other parliamentarians.

And Father Dominic Emanuel of India's Catholic Bishop Council reacted angrily when the legal ban on gays was lifted saying that the church did not "approve" of homosexual behaviour as it did not consider it “natural, ethical or moral".

The Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference in southern India went a step further by declaring that homosexuality was against Indian culture.

“We will oppose it and since our country is a democratic one, there is no way that this can be legalised through legislation. The church's views will have to be sought" conference spokesperson Father Stephen Alathara said.